Panem: a historical perspective
by TheGamekeeper
Summary: Two hundred years after the end of Mockingjay, how would historians view the rise of Panem? Just a little thought experiment (with a little structural help from "The Handmaid's Tale") on how Panem and the Hunger Games came to be. One-shot.


This story is modeled after the last Chapter of "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

All characters, ideas, locations and objects are the property of the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins.

_The following document is a partial transcript of the opening proceedings of the Symposium on Panemian studies. Held as part of 32__nd__ World History Week programme at the National Institute of Historical Studies, Nouvelle-Paris, European Union on 24__th__ June, 2649. _

_Chair: Professor Etienne St-Clair, Department of Panemian studies, National Institute of Social Sciences, Nouvelle-Paris, European Union. _

_Keynote Speaker: Doctor Tacitus Merritt, Director of Coin Memorial Archives, New Haven University, North American Republic._

ST-CLAIR: Thank you for coming this morning, and I am very pleased that so many of our students have turned up for Professor Merritt's talk, which I am sure to be both interesting and enlightening. We Scholars of Panemian history believe that this period is currently suffering from a lack of academic interest, both due to the lack of primary sources, and a misguided desire to forget about a particularly brutal part of our hemisphere's history. It is with this in mind that we have chosen to place the focus of this year's World History Week on Panem. I hope you all will enjoy the events and lectures throughout the rest of this week.

Before we proceed, a few announcements. The hunting expedition, sponsored by the Odair Family Foundation will continue tomorrow as planned. Those of you who have not brought suitable water-gear and Mutt Harpoons can rent them for a small deposit at the Administration Office. Subject to weather conditions, the Hunger Games Re-enactment and Period Costume Poetry Reading may be postponed to Thursday, although Professor Amoxtli has assured us that weather should probably stay fine.

Let me also remind you of the other events that are available to you as part of the World History Week Programme. Tomorrow, Professor Miguel Luis-Borges of the University of La Paz, Federated States of Latin America will speak on "In God We Trust?- Understanding the Lack of Religion in Panemian Culture", and on Wednesday, a presentation would be given by Professor Guo Xuesi of the University of Wuhan, East Asian Republic. This presentation, titled "The Panemian use of Bio-chemicals as Agents of State Control" would surely be a fascinating mix of science and politics. Finally, Professor Maurya Shurabhi of the Delhi State University would be the closing speaker of our programme on Friday with a lecture on "The Pursuit of Pleasure – Class Dynamics amongst Capital Citizens in the Late Panemian Era". In order to avoid the confusion and overcrowding that occurred in last year's programme, may students please register before attending these lectures.

I must also remind our keynote speaker- although I'm sure it is not necessary- to keep within his time limit, as we wish to leave space for questions, and I expect none of us wants to miss dinner, as happened yesterday. (_Laughter_)

Doctor Merrit scarcely need introduction, as he is well known in the world of post-devastation historical and political studies both by his many years of engagement in the area and his extensive publications. Notable works include the well-known "Difficulties in establishing research methodologies for the Early Hunger Games" and the foundational "Panem and Siberius – Two 24th Century Totalitarian States and Their Ideological Formulations". As you may also know, he is currently the chief editor of the recently-discovered "Austin Documents", and is instrumental in their preservation, translation and publication. His lecture is titled "Austin Documents – Insights and Challenges on the Historiography of the Early Panemian Era". Please give him a round of applause. _(Applause)_

DOCTOR MERRIT: Thank you, I'm very honoured to be here today speaking to the bright young minds of the next generation. This is particularly important to me, considering this is the institute which I completed my doctoral thesis, and later met my wife. _(Laughter)_

As many of you may know, researching the early history of Panem and the Origins of the Hunger Games, now the most recognizable symbol of Panemian culture has been notoriously difficult. Almost all archival information in North America predating and immediately following the War of Great Devastation ("The War")1 has been destroyed, leaving the political and economic circumstances that gave rise to Panem and the Hunger Games shrouded in uncertainty. Before the discovery of the Houston Documents, the only reliable sources we have of the era are the Portland Resolutions, a series of apparently parliamentary documents produced by the Portland City Council during and immediately after The War as they tried to maintain a semblance of order, before finally dissolving in the year 2197.

These documents allowed us to gain a glimpse, albeit a very foggy one, on the conditions which led to The War of Devastation, at least in the context of the Northeast of what would then have been called the United States. According to the documents, overuse of an unknown technology has caused the level of greenhouse gases to increase exponentially, leading to substantial climate change and rapidly altered the United States' (and presumably the world's) geography. The resulting social and political unrest led to a nuclear war which devastated most of the countries of the world, and led to a prolonged period of hardship and conflict. Archival information from around the world2, as well as studies conducted by the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences at the University of New Melbourne seems to support the events described in these documents, showing that remnants of cities have been found at the bottom of the gulf of Mexico, and what is today Manhattan Bay was created by a massive, man-made explosion.

However, it was with this that our knowledge of the circumstances which led to the creation of Panem ends. The Portland resolutions ended soon after the onset of the nuclear winter, and conventional records in North America did not resume until the 6th Hunger Games, when Panem began their official records. Any information we had about the intervening years came from official Panemian textbooks3, which as most of you know are so infamously biased and vague that one historian has described them as "Bellerist" _(laughter)4_.

Such a large gap in historical materials, particularly when Panem was already a well-established state at the time records commence, have been baffling and continue to be debated by academics. However, the general consensus among historians, citing the Crane Files5 suggest that records from this period may once have existed, but were destroyed by the Panemian government following the First Rebellion. Nonetheless, the fact remains that academics have been stumped time and time again in their research on Panemian history due to this large information gap.

It is under this premise that the Austin documents pose particular value for Panemian scholars. These documents, found sealed in a tin box commonly used by Coalminers in district 12, was discovered buried near the United-States-era city of Austin (within the territory of district 4 at Panemian times). Inside the box are roughly 120 documents, mostly less than 2 pages long. Additionally, a bound volume spanning over 500 pages was also found. Carbon dating establishes these documents as being made around the late 25th century, near the end of the First Rebellion. The archaic writing style and use of Panemian jargon posed significant difficulties in understanding the texts, but through the expert deciphering work of our technical staff, we have been able to gain at present a rudimentary understanding of these materials.

We do not know the identity of the owner of these documents. On document S-4-60, he identifies himself as being a "Prints Corrections officer". After painstakingly trawling through our archives, we discovered in an obscure district office report that his title coincides with a short-lived department in the Post-Rebellion Panemian government, responsible for the censorship of all government documents. It existed for only about 5 years before its members were summarily executed for "treason". The exact implications of their crime are unknown, although in the political turmoil immediately after the First Rebellion, it is likely they have sided on a losing political faction, and as the result lost their lives.

The contents of the smaller documents, later identified as diary entries, contain more information about our mysterious owner and how he came to be in the possession of the volume. He was a low-level officer of the aforementioned department, and was charged with travelling from district to district to retrieve stray files that have found their way into the district offices. In district twelve, hidden behind a large wardrobe in a back office of the district office, he chanced upon a volume titled "A History of Panem, Volume 1". Fearing to be seen with the document, but unwilling to submit it to the authorities, he hid it in a coalminer's tin box, and carried it with him until he reached district four, when he received orders to return to the Capitol immediately. Before returning, he hid his diary and the manuscript in the box, and buried it at the site where it is found today.

Looking at the manuscript itself _(plinths displays holograms of the volume_), it is better to describe it as being an facsimile collection of various reports, memorandums, letters, orders and briefings, spanning from the end of the Devastation-era, seen here with this written letter from a young Marine to his wife; to roughly one year before our traveler came to district twelve, seen here with an executive order signed by President Haynes to cut the rations of families who refuse to register for Tessera by three-quarters. In between, this volume contains a wealth of materials, and has proved to be an invaluable resource on providing a more complete picture on the early Panemian Sate:

It seems that contrary to traditional theories on the formation of Panem, the organization of Panem into thirteen districts is more a product of accident than by intentional planning. Following the War, residual populations of the former United States, separated by inhospitable terrain, weather conditions, and radioactive dust, settled in sheltered valleys scattered throughout the continent, and began to adapt to their respective environment, forming thirteen distinctive clusters based on the climate and produce of the region. The state later known as Panem did not come into being until the early 23rd Century, when a group of Ranchers in North Dakota, in the name of resurrecting the United States and upholding the Constitution, began annexing neighboring settlements. The surprisingly peaceful process of unification continued for about a decade, until all settlements have been incorporated into an area roughly equivalent to the boundaries of Panem. The Capital was settled at Cheyenne, Wyoming and an "interim" governmental arrangement was formed where a president was chosen from members of the state council, comprising mostly of the original ranchers or their descendants and appointed for life. Vacant seats in the council were chosen by other councilors from within the government. Governors were sent to the provinces, where they provided residents of the districts with transport, technology, and medical services in return for an annually-set tax of raw materials.

This polity survived more or less intact for over a century until the year 2349, when citizens of the State of New England, tired of the increasingly exorbitant taxes, demanded that an elected Legislature and independent Courts should be formed in accordance with the Constitution. This application was initially accepted by then elderly president Abercrombie, and elections began that November. The following year, President Abercrombie passed away, and was replaced by President Hadean. The same year, the elected representatives motioned for the dissolution of the State Council and elections to be held for both the president and the State Council on the grounds they were not democratically elected. President Hadean declared a state of emergency, dissolved the House of Representatives and ordered all state representatives to be executed on the grounds of treason. In response, the state of New England rallied nine other states, and with the tacit approval of the remaining three declared war against the Cheyenne Government. The result, now popularly called the First Rebellion, lasted for 3 years and resulted in the death of over 20% of the country's population. Due to the technological and weaponry superiority of the Government troops, they eventually overpowered the states and the rebellion was crushed following the Battle of Great Salt Lake in 2353. It was at around the same time that the Panemian government began experimenting with genetic hybridization, creating the Mutts which continues to be pests on both sides of the Atlantic today

President Hadean following the end of the First Rebellion began implementing a series of policies that would turn Panem into the state more familiar to conventional history. He, with the unanimous approval of the State Council indefinitely suspended the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and amended the Crimes Act to allow for penalties to extend for generations. The use of Avoxes began in this era, the first generation being the families of the rebel leaders and representatives. Twelve states were stripped of their name and rights, becoming numbered districts. The fate of the State of New England is well known and I shall not bore you by repeating it here (_laughter_). Houses, schools and libraries of the twelve districts were demolished and replaced with barracks. The Capital was moved to an easily defendable valley nested in the Sioux Ranges (_ed. note: pre-devastation name the Rockies (Tanning, 67)_), and a stadium was constructed there, the scale and complexity of its ruins now immortalized in the infamous poem by Hadrian Lehmann. The First Hunger Games was held there two years later in 2355.

However, despite these newly gleaned information, various difficulties, both old and new, remains unanswered.

1. This brings in the first issue, which is the authenticity of this document. Notable forgeries such as the Everdeen Diaries and the Paylor files are known to exist, and often publishers looking for something to boost their sales, would claim to have found from time to time some long-lost photograph of alleged Tribunes. Paraphrasing pre-devastation scholar M. Atwood, It seems that certain periods of history, no matter how sketchy true scholarship on them may be, often become the subject of comparison and all too often becomes a cause for hypocritical self-congratulation. It is essential to realize before passing moral judgment on Panem, that the state is subjected to levels of environmental pressures which we are fortunately freer from, and ultimately it is unfair to pass anachronistic moral judgments on past societies which we know little about. Our job is not to censure, but to understand.

Returning from my digression: Technically, however, such documents are difficult to forge, with incredible amounts of information on the inside workings of Panem. The use of period writing styles and jargon are very difficult to recreate, and would require an expert on Panem culture to reproduce convincingly. Finally, the watermark used on the executive orders collected on the documents also seems to indicate this is an authentic document.

2. Secondly, as far as we know, from the time of the 6th Hunger Games to the end of the Second Rebellion and the birth of the North American Republic, the president of Panem ruled as an autocrat. No mention of the state council was found in any of the official records. Was the council abolished sometime after the end of the 2nd games, which coincides with the date of the last document in the volume, but before the 6th games? Was the council merely a legal fiction, created to justify the president's unchecked powers? Does it exist at all? The general poverty of historical records, coupled with the fact that they are almost entirely written by Panemian officials preclude any conclusive results.

3. Finally and most importantly is why would our mysterious diarist have found this enigmatic document in a back-office of district twelve? My colleague, Doctor Gaius Hansen in a recently published paper posited that the document may have been smuggled there by New England agents, trying to gain intelligence on Panem. However, as many of you may know New England did not form their Secret Service corps until under the Sherman presidency, and no records show any form of contact between the two states in the preceding years. However, Dr. Hansen in turn argued that persistent legends throughout the mid-late Panemian period that District Thirteen was not destroyed seems to indicate that at least some contact has been made with the residents of the districts, though personally I find this unconvincing.

Other questions regarding this document also beg to be answered. Where are the second or third volumes, if there are any? Why, out of all the places in district twelve where this volume could be hidden, the district office was chosen? The cover of the volume bears the initials "S.C." what does it mean? The document, though illuminating in other areas, remain mute on these issues. The discovery of this document has both provided answers, but also posed new questions. In the absence of new materials, it is likely that some of these will never be answered. Thank you.

(Applause)

ST-CLAIR: Are there any questions?

1 The War of Great Devastation is an anachronistic name given to the nuclear war fought between USA, China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran during the last decade of the 22nd century. (Huxley, 224)

2 Although US archives, as one of the major participant states of the War, were completely destroyed, other states more removed from the conflict such as the Federated States of Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand has managed to preserve most of their archival collections. (Scholastica, 405)

3 Despite their vagueness, these textbooks have cast light on key historical events of the early period, such as the First Rebellion and that the Hunger Games began under the Presidency of Haddad.

4 Bellerist is a popular slang term of uncertain origin, it means "devoid of meaning, wishy-washy, without substance" (Xinhua Press, 4677)

5 The Crane Files are a series of documents published by the Crane Family Collection (PARIS-IX press, 2597); The Cranes were a prominent Capital Family in the late Panemian era.


End file.
